Tag: China’s Massive Building Plans

China to Europe in two days, not twenty-one. Global containers shifting from ocean to a trans-continental route. Events are happening faster each day as China continues to rebuild ancient trade routes by land and by sea.

Global product containers, 90% of which now are going by ocean, may be soon taking trans-continent routes. It’s called “the New Silk Road,” or “Belt & Road Initiative.

Over a trillion dollars in projects are underway. Over the next five yeas, faster railroads, refineries, bridges, industrial parks and ports are to be built.

Projected is the China to London with a 7,500 rail line through nine countries. Freight trains to cross the Eurasian continent in eighteen days. China is the world’s largest exporting nation so the economic lives of over 630 million Chines are going to be upgraded.

The new maritime Silk road from the middle of China to Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia is to replace the old Silk Road begun between 206 BC and 220 A.D.

Xi jinping, president of China and the general secretary of the community Party, a man in his mid-sixties, has been planning this expanding trade route involving sixty countries since its first announcement in 2014. He is now offering Chinese credit through new established banks for countries who want to help build new roads, pipelines and ports from Lithuania to the Horn of Africa, Sri Lanka to Israel, and Pakistan to Iran, and the two train lines which will run from China to Germany.

The Chinese Development bank has already been building roads, high-speed rail and pipelines in many Chinese provinces. The fund is expanding to cover these new projects in South Asia, SE Asia, the Middle East and parts of Europe.

Another new bank approved recently by 22 countries, but opposed by the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Australia (which is reconsidering because they lie so close to the expansions), The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB, and the BRICS Development Bank are to finance projects in energy, telecommunications and transportation (China and Indonesia are its main shareholders).

Announcement of another Chinese landmark came a few days ago on June 20th when the global investment index provider MSCI said it is adding domestic Chinese stocks known as “A shares” to its index. Ultimately hundreds of billions are anticipated to flow into the index. MSCI will ease the transition into what has been a difficult procedure for foreign investors to buy or to sell. It’s expected that U.S. pension as well as Mom and Pop investors may soon be owning these shares in their portfolios.

Recent activities of the New Silk Road were known by Swedish visitors who told me, “Before leaving Sweden a month ago, we saw a video of one of these Chinese fast freight trains. They told us it was heavily armed just as were the caravans transporting goods along the old Silk Road route in the days or Marco Polo and Alexander the Great. We also have heard the Chinese president say that some day he hopes to build a similar new trade route to the U.S.”

Experts like Mike Burnick, the editor of Real Wealth Report investment news letter, have said that because China already has an “Insatiable” taste for metals and natural resources that there will be a boost in commodity prices for such things as copper, steel, uranium, platinum.

As a former news reporter and editor, I’ve been prompted to asked several Americans if they knew about the New Silk Road. Only the Fed X delivery man had a vague idea that he’d read something about it, Others, even a free-lancers for an oil company, did not.

Hey, America. Do we want to left behind? Shouldn’t we quit bitching and get behind the rebuilding of our own infrastructure?

The next summit for world leaders to discuss the Belt and Road is in 2019. Will the U.S. be a world player?